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Dragon Ball Z: Budokai
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai, released as in Japan, is a fighting video game that was released for the PlayStation 2 in December 2002 in North America and for the Nintendo GameCube in North America on October 2003. The game was released in Japan by Bandai on the PlayStation 2 in February 13, 2003, while the Nintendo GameCube release was brought out near the end of the year, on November 28, 2003. It was developed by Dimps and published by Atari. As the GameCube version was released almost a year after the PlayStation 2 version, the opportunity was taken to improve the graphics using cel-shading. Gameplay Skills Each character can be optionally customised by using a 7-slot ''skill tray; players may choose up to 7 skills and assign them to a fighter. Some skills can take up multiple slots. Skills may be purchased from Mr. Popo with the prize money from the World Tournament mode. There are three types of skills: Special Moves, which include skills such as the Kamehameha and the ability to become Super Saiyan; Physical, which includes such skills as Zanku Fist; and Equipment, which includes skills such as the Senzu Bean. One can also purchase Dragon Balls, and when you have all of them, Oolong appears and summons Shenron, giving the player a choice of 3 Breakthrough capsules; these allow a player to use all of a character's moves and abilities at once. Story mode The Story Mode consists of 3D cutscenes adapted from the series (though more close to the manga than the anime). Unlike later Budokai games, the story mode is similar to most other fighting games (in which cutscenes occur between battles). The story mode covers 3 Sagas - Saiyan, Namek, Android - and the player automatically collects capsules (or sometimes Dragon Balls) at the end of each battle. Depending on which episode is being played, the playable characters are Goku, Gohan, Piccolo and Vegeta. At the end of every saga there are bonus what if episodes, and one plays as the main villain of that saga; Vegeta, Freeza and Cell respectively. *In Vegeta's storyline, Vegeta: Saiyan Prince, Vegeta and Goku then duel, and Vegeta defeats him with minimum effort, driven by the desire to avenge Nappa. Then Krillin and Gohan turn up, and Vegeta beats them separately. After the battle, Vegeta speaks to himself for a minute while Yajirobe sneaks up behind him. Vegeta hears Yajirobe, and, impressed by Yajirobe's bravery, offers him to become his next pupil. Yajirobe refuses, stating that he doesn't want to end up like Nappa. Enraged at being reminded of Nappa's death, Vegeta screams in anger, and becomes a Super Saiyan. The episode ends. *In Freeza's storyline, Freeza's Rage, Freeza successfully beats Goku, Piccolo, Vegeta, Krillin and Gohan in battle. He then succeeds in wishing for immortality. Blowing up Namek, Freeza returns to his spaceship, deciding to destroy Earth next. The episode ends. *In Cell's storyline, A Cold-Blooded Assassin, Cell attempts to absorb 17 and 18, and successfully beats 16 in battle. He then absorbs 17, but while attempting to absorb 18 Krillin jumps in the way, causing Cell to accidentally absorbs Krillin and lose a lot of power (Cell battles Krillin). Yamcha and Tien then show up to challenge the weakened Cell. He just manages to beat Yamcha, but he is then killed by Tien. The real Cell then wakes up in the middle of the Cell Ring, realising that it was a dream. The episode ends. World tournament The World Tournament allows players to compete against a computer-controlled character in a Martial Arts Tournament. The Prizes can the following: *Novice: 10,000 Zeni *Adept: 30,000 Zeni *Advance: 50,000 Zeni Dueling Dueling mode allows a player to fight a computer-controlled character at a preset skill level, or two human players to fight each other using any custom skills. A player may also watch a fight between two computer-controlled fighters. Sequels There are two sequels released to this game, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2, and Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3. The game Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi in Japan, released in fall 2005, is not a true sequel to the Budokai series; it was developed by Spike instead of Dimps and features a radically different fighting engine. In its home country of Japan it is known as Dragon Ball Z Sparking!, but was renamed for worldwide release to capitalize on the popularity of the Budokai brand. A sequel to Budokai Tenkaichi was released on October 2006 release in Japan under the title Dragon Ball Z Sparking! Neo and was also released in the U.S. as Budokai Tenkaichi 2. Characters *Android 16 *Android 17 *Android 18 *Android 19 Testaburger *Captain Ginyu *Cell (Base, Second Form, Perfect Form, Perfect Form Power Weighted) *Cell (Krillin/Cell Fusion) *Only Playable in Story Mode* *Dodoria *Frieza (Base, Final Form, 100% Final Form, Mecha-Frieza) *Goku (Base, King Kai Fist x2, King Kai Fist x5, King Kai Fist x10, Super Saiyan) *Great Saiyaman *Hercule (Base, High Tension) *Kid Gohan (Base, Unlock Potential) *Krillin Stevens (Base, Unlock Potential) *Nappa *Piccolo (Base, Sync With Nail, Fuse With Kami) *Raditz *Recoome *Teen Gohan (Base, Super Saiyan, Super Saiyan 2) *Tien *Trunks (Base, Super Saiyan, Super Trunks, Super Trunks 2) *Vegeta (Base, Super Saiyan, Super Vegeta) *Yamcha *Zarbon (Base, Monster Form) Voice cast The North American version contains the voices from the FUNimation dub of the anime series, with all other localised versions containing the original Japanese dub with subtitles. Reception The game has received less than favorable reviews, many critics complained about its simple interface and the fact that combos weren't worth the payoff. The game has received a 68% on Game Rankings. Trivia *The opening from the Japanese version featured CHA-LA HEAD CHA-LA (the first opening song from the TV series). It was replaced in the American version with the first US theme song, Rock the Dragon. However, the end credits featured CHA-LA HEAD CHA-LA instrumentals. For some reason the opening used in the European version was just made of clips from the Story Mode, and had a different music. Speculation led lots to believe it was due to most of the European audience not seeing the proper introduction the anime had, although it was actually seen in some countries like Spain. *Originally, the European version of the game called Mr. Satan by his original name, but this was changed to Hercule in later releases. *On the dueling image on the main menu and the PAL GameCube boxart Vegeta is in his Buu Saga attire. *Unlike later games in which transforming gave a slight percentage of attack increasement, each transformation in Budokai gave each character a 10% attack increase, making characters who could transform the most powerful characters in the game. Other Budokai games (excluding Tenkaichi) gave characters smaller increases or fixed increases depending on transformations, being no more than 10% extra for each transformation (this makes Goku the most powerful character in the game, since he has the most transformations). *The Kamehameha attack is yellow for everyone except for Cell, while in the anime, the yellow version does not exist. In the colored page of the manga, though, the kamehameha is most of the time yellow. *During the story mode's cutscenes inside Master Roshi's house, you can see a book on his table which has a blurred image of the cover for the first Dragon Ball manga volume. See also *''Dragon Ball Z'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3'' *''Dragon Ball Z & Z 2 Original Soundtrack'' External links *[http://atari.com/us/games/dragonball_z_budokai/playstation2 Atari's Budokai page] * *[http://ps2.ign.com/articles/379/379000p1.html?fromint=1 Dragon Ball Z: Budokai review] at IGN *[http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/562522.asp Dragon Ball Z: Budokai] at Game Rankings